


Dangerously Tangled

by deandratb



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 23:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16129235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: Frank falls for the owner of his local flower shop, but he knows it can't last.Karen doesn’t have any idea who he really is; she’s never seen him at his worst, and he would give anything to keep it that way.





	Dangerously Tangled

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snookolive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snookolive/gifts).



> Fic prompt: **florist AU + it’s not you, it’s my enemies**

Frank doesn’t have much of a life once he’s on his own. His day-to-day rhythm is erratic, just like his moods. But he does have one routine that he stick to as reliably as the seasons change: every year since they died, he buys flowers five times and leaves them for his wife and kids. 

Three birthdays, one anniversary, and once to mark the day they were taken from him, as time continues to pass and the years turn him more to stone. On each of those days, despite the risk, he allows himself the memorial…and every time, he buys the flowers from the same florist, pretty Karen Page with her kind, watchful eyes.

When she’s not busy arranging his modest bouquets, Frank catches her leaving out food for stray cats and also kneeing a man in the groin when the guy tries to box her in behind her register. He sees more than he’s supposed to, probably–definitely more than he’d like. He doesn’t want to be interested; the last thing he wants is to heal.

The way Karen is cautious around him, like she knows something nobody else does, is even more reason Frank should stay away, but of course he doesn’t. He stopped choosing the safest course when his life was shattered; no reason to change that now, faced with big blue eyes that always seem to be waiting for him to answer questions she hasn’t spoken out loud.

Instead, when she seems to tire of waiting and asks him if he drinks coffee, he laughs. The feeling of it grates in his throat, because he’s forgotten how. But he doesn’t mind the pain. She smiles with just her eyes, and he’s sunk.

Sharing a booth in the kind of dive Frank believes you can only find in Hell’s Kitchen, they talk over coffee, circling around the things that really matter. He kisses her in the alley out back when they leave, the bitterness of the coffee on their tongues, his fingers sliding through her hair and holding on.

When he realizes he never wants to let go, that’s the moment he knows he has to. Karen doesn’t have any idea who he really is; she’s never seen him at his worst, and he would give anything to keep it that way. There’s no future for them, because he’s prepared to go out fighting.

And even if they stood a chance, even if she could look at him bruised and beaten and love him anyway…nobody he loves will ever be safe again.

Before he tells Karen he loves her, Frank already knows he’s going to run.

**Author's Note:**

> Titled borrowed from "Second Time" by Bruno Major.


End file.
